This is a challenge across all esports and not just cycling. In other esports, competition may be online, but hardware is usually provided by the organizer and overseen in locations where refs can ensure nothing is being done to machines to cheat. Nowadays cheating scandals only tend to come up in competitions where people are playing from home.
Yes but with cycling, the point of the e-sport is to not travel. If you have to travel with your bike to a physical location, there is no point in cycling on a static smart trainer, you might as well race on the road (which is much more fun anyway). It's no longer an e-sport.
The idea would be you would travel without your bike and use one provided by the organizer. That's what other esports do. There's still advantages to the esport, such as not needing to close public roads, design tracks that don't exist or aren't easily accessed, and allow different racing strategy (I imagine they don't simulate pushing wind).
Zwift doesn't stimulate wind. It does simulate drafting, so you can save energy by sitting on another player's wheel, then try to sprint past them at the finish line.
